What you should do if you get into a car accident?

My first accident in 9 years.. I wasnt prepared for it at all.

I was heading home from work while waiting to do a discretionary turn. While slowly inching forward to check for oncoming vehicles, i got banged. My mind didnt caught up with what happened and i only reacted 5 seconds later. I thought “what the hell was that?”

Snapping back to reality, i realised that I’ve gotten into an accident. Recalling all the things my friends told me about during their incidents, I was somehow prepared. Here’s what i did:

1. Take photos, A LOT of it. Every angle of the accident scene and the damages.

2. Exchange contact with the opposite party. Its important to exchange full details including photos of their NRIC and Driving License. You will need this while doing third party claims against them.

3. Never agree to private settlement until damage is assessed by a trusted workshop.

The damages done to my car appeared quite minor, broken clips from my rear bumper and some cracks. I thought we just needed to do a simple replacement of bumper.. until my workshop checked the damage for me.

Tail light cracked, bumper got so pushed in it damaged my chassis, boot cannot even open/close properly.. total repair cost was estimated to be around $2500-$3000.

When i informed the other party of the estimated repair cost, he went berserk saying I’m trying to scam him. RIDICULOUS. I sent him all the videos and damage afterwards and he kept arguing his friends who works in a workshop can get it done way cheaper. But cheaper work usually relates to inferior quality and sloppy repairs, i would never want that, after all its not my fault isn’t it?

After assessing the damage, i called up my insurance agent and he directed me to one of the approved reporting centre (diff insurance agency has diff reporting centre) and i quickly went over and did my report.

Brought the report back and sent my car immediately for repair, they will settle the claims and repairs all for me (thank goodness insurance are mandatory). They should also provide you a replacement car while the car is repairing and they will teach you how to transfer your season parking over to the replacement car.

I’m still shock and appalled at the attitude of the driver, how would you have handled him instead? Let me know!

#ThingsToDo #My9to5 #lemon8recommendations #Lemon8SG #lemon8singapore #lemon8review #accidentinsurance